Just moments ago, Governor PBJ issued a hastily hand-written press release after reading about the Federal government's plans to cut the wasteful Senate program in the name of fiscal responsibility.
Here's his statement:
My Fellow Louisianians:
It has recently come to my attention that President Obama is seeking to one-up me in cutting waste from government by cutting the U.S. Senate out of the federal government, saving all Americans some $300 billion a year. While I applaud such a move, as it will bring our Sinning Senator Vitter and our whoring for Louisiana Senator Landrieu home, I am now announcing a new constitutional amendment that I'd like for the State Legislature to consider:
Abolish the Governor's office after I win the 2012 Presidential Election.
I mean, let's face it ... I'm in the midst of privatizing the Louisiana government to the point that we will not need the Charity Hospital system any longer, nor a Lt. Governor, whose Tourism responsibilities can be better done by, you know, real marketing professionals. Both of these privatizing moves will enable the State of Louisiana to get out of the hospital business, as well as the tourism business.
But I have come to the realization that since most of the governmental functions are going to be privatized under my leadership, it makes sense to simply abolish the Governor's office once I leave Louisiana for the White House. After all, I spend quite a bit of my time out-of-state raising my name ID amongst the conservative faithful and scrounging up cash for my "re-election" bid next year. It's not like anything major happens while I'm gone, so why should that change once I'm elected to be your President?
Governor PBJ campaigned for Governor on the reforming Louisiana's image. One of the policy platforms he ran on was: (pdf alert)
Provide citizens on-line, easy-to-understand access to all sectors of state government
We should upgrade Louisiana's sunshine laws to improve access to public records and meetings by expanding Internet-based access to filings,
reports, and announcements in all departments.
Presumably, he meant to include the Governor's Office in "state government." Since the special session that he called last year to reform the ethics laws, and let the sunshine filter into the state government, he has touted the reforms he pushed through the Legislature.
However, he has restricted public access to documents, filings, and reports that his office deals with. And I don't just mean his office, but the entirety of the Executive Branch of the Louisiana government. Current law allows for Governor PBJ to shield documents under the custody of his press secretary, legislative director, director of boards and commissions, and other officials on his executive staff, as well as all records in the Homeland Security Office as well as the State Military Department.
Trying to get a Freedom of Information Act request out of the Governor's office is so difficult that the Citizen Access Project, a program undertaken by the Marion Brechner Institute for Open Government at the University of Florida, declared that Louisiana's open records laws, "particularly when applied to the Governor's office, [are] the darkest sunshine laws" in the nation.
The poll that I linked to earlier on the 2010 Senate race has some really useful information for politicians considering running against Vitter, but also tells about how Louisianans feel about a few of their elected officials:
Candidate
Very Favorable
Favorable
Unfavorable
Very Unfavorable
No Opinion
Net (Fav - Unfav)
President Obama
14%
33%
31%
13%
9%
3
Sinator Vitter
12%
37%
21%
21%
9%
7
Governor PBJ
21%
33%
23%
16%
7%
15
Sec State Dardenne
15%
33%
12%
10%
30%
26
Governor PBJ has a net favorable/unfavorable rating of 15. Only 54% of Louisianans now have a favorable opinion of him, and that's after it was in the 60's for most of last year. Why folks are surprised that PBJ's numbers aren't that hot is beyond me, really. He's had a rough year and a third as Governor thus far:
He is misperceiving the public mood out there ... folks actually want the government to step in and fix the problem. They are realizing that the robber barons of Wall Street caused this problem, not the government. And they also realize that the only entity with any power to rein in said robber barons is ... well ... the government. And his speech last Tuesday night made that crystal clear to Louisianans.
Events like this aren't gonna help, especially when the Governor is committing what they call political suicide in Texas by leaving millions in federal money on the table.
The news came today that Governor PBJ has appointed one of his major campaign contributors to the Board of Regents. That campaign contributor is Mrs. Charlotte Bollinger:
Donor
Address
Date
Amount of Donation
Charlotte Bollinger
P.O. Box 250
Lockport, LA
10/15/2003
$1,000
Bollinger Fourchon Inc.
P.O. Box 250
Lockport, LA
10/15/2003
$4,000
Bollinger Fourchon Inc.
P.O. Box 250
Lockport, LA
11/7/2003
$1,000
Bollinger Fourchon Inc.
P.O. Box 250
Lockport, LA
11/7/2003
$1,000
Charlotte Bollinger
P.O. Box 250
Lockport, LA
5/11/2007
$250
Charlotte Bollinger
P.O. Box 250
Lockport, LA
6/11/2007
$1,000
TOTALS
$8,250
The donations from Bollinger Fourchon Inc. are included, as they are from the same P.O. Box as the donations from Mrs. Charlotte Bollinger, which leads me to believe that she controls the pursestrings of Bollinger Fourchon Inc.
Of course, Mrs. Charlotte Bollinger is of the Bollinger family, the ones who own and run Bollinger Shipyards and various subsidiaries, which donated an additional $22,000 to Governor PBJ's gubernatorial campaigns in 2003 and 2007. Seems to be that in order to get an appointment to any board that the Governor controls, one needs to donate substantial sums of money.
Days before Governor PBJ heads to Iowa, ostensibly to inflame the hearts and minds of the nation's Christian conservatives, The Ouachita Citizen's Sam Hanna, Jr., penned an impressive editorial, entitled Jindal May Be Acting Prematurely:
"As we all know as well, Jindal's stock has been rising as of late among Republicans, who have been scratching their heads on the heels of John McCain's defeat at the hands of Barack Obama. In other words, Jindal's success as governor in Louisiana, though narrow in scope, has catapulted him onto a list of rising stars in the GOP. And yes, discussion about who will take on Obama in 2012 is already being bantered about ..."
Yet, Jindal should be reminded that he is the governor of a state (Louisiana), which faces a host of problems, including a projected $1 billion revenue shortfall that his administration and the Legislature must tackle when they craft the state's spending plan for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The governor also should be reminded that Louisiana holds the dubious distinction of possessing one of the worst public education systems in the country. Louisiana also can lay claim to being the home of some of most impoverished people in America, while our inadequate workforce serves as a deterrent in attracting new business and industry to the Sportsman's Paradise.
It will be a very interesting year ... to see how Governor PBJ tackles the problem of the budget shortfall, especially since education is one of the few discretionary areas of the budget that can be CUT, along with health care spending, as they are not mandated by our Constitution.
While I know heading to Iowa means that Governor PBJ is already casting his eyes to the national scene, something tells me that the modus operandi of his thus far fly-by-night political career is going to be pulled down to Louisiana for the next few years in dealing with the problems that are coming our way.
And I haven't mentioned the International Paper Mill in Bastrop ... which announced today that they are closing "indefinitely." That's 550 Louisianan families put out in the cold ... the month before Christmas.
I imagine that Mr. Hanna could pen the following lines, and they would be pretty damn accurate:
Where have you gone, Governor PBJ? The Louisianan heartland turns its lonely eyes to you ...
I mentioned in an open thread a few days ago that Louisiana is facing a projected $1.3 billion shortfall in its budget. The blame for this lies with our elected officials, both Democratic and Republican. For the past six years, the business community, (never one to look out for anyone but themselves), called for tax cut after tax cut. And, because the Legislature is afraid of being called anti-business, they acquiesced. But that's not the whole story ... they also increased spending instead of saving enough for the lean times, which is projected to occur in the next fiscal year.
Such a shortfall poses a significant problem, as much of the budget is constitutionally mandated, with the incredible exception of education and health care spending, which is discretionary.
This means that the Legislature cannot cut the budgets of anything without revising the State Constitution, which means, short of calling for a new Constitutional Convention to write yet another State Constitution, the Legislature will have to put any such constitutional changes to the voters.
All this means is that Governor PBJ will face the first true test of his term as Governor. Does he be pragmatic, and call for a tax raise; or, does he act like a Republican ideologue, and slash education and health care spending?
As frequent commentator and contributor Matt D said to me the other day:
"I love the GOP, man. Sometimes, you just gotta give it to them.
Is the education system doing well? Cut their funding, we're probably overspending.
is the education system doing poorly? Cut their funding, and they'll use market-based solutions to improve it themselves."
You can substitute any of the services that government provides for education system, with the exception of infrastructure spending, and the military, and it'll work. That's how easy it is to be Republican.
Of course, in the real world, their solutions don't always work. And education funding and health care funding are the two "discretionary" items we can least afford to cut right now. But I bet you won't be hearing that from the statewide media over the next few months, nor will you hear how the tax cuts enacted for the last six years are contributing to the problem.
Over the last few weeks, Governor PBJ has been on the road stumping for Republican candidates. Here's where PBJ's been:
Missouri ... raising money for Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof.
Mississippi ... raising money for ethically challenged Republican Senate candidate Roger Wicker.
Florida ... on the day that the Tigers were given a wake-up call in Gainesville, he was raising money for himself while touting Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Texas ... raising money in Houston for Republican hopeful Pete Olson, running for Congress in TX-22, Tom DeLay's old seat, currently represented by Nick Lampson, a Texas Democrat before hosting a fundraiser for himself.
That's where Governor PBJ's been for the past month ... raising money for Republican candidates and himself in Missouri, Texas, Mississippi and Florida. Pray tell, why is he raising campaign cash in states that he will NOT represent?
Could it be ... that he's getting ready to run for President in 2012? The definitive proof is shown at the right.
Now, it's normal for rising stars in politics to travel the country stumping for other political candidates in their party. Indeed, Barack Obama stumped for candidates all over the country in 2006. He even campaigned for the Senator from Connecticut that I was working to unseat through the candidacy of Ned Lamont.
But Iowa ... the site of the nation's first caucuses. Iowa, where many a Republican presidential contender was catapulted to the Republican nomination.
And Governor PBJ's heading there a mere eighteen days after the election. Folks, you don't head to Iowa if you're a rising political star just for the hell of it. You go there to lay the groundwork for a presidential campaign, the first step of which is getting your name out there amongst the activists of your respective political party.
And Governor PBJ's already starting the process. The question we here in Louisiana have to ask him is this:
Are you going to run for President in 2012? If so, does that mean you will NOT be running for re-election as Governor in 2011, as running for President is a full-time endeavor in its own right?
Or, should you win re-election, are you going to abdicate your responsibilities as Governor in your quest for the Presidency?
Days after Governor Jindal heeded public outrage over the Legislature's ill-advised pay raise for themselves, legislators are starting to finally let the public in on the secret deal that I suspected back in June:
Beyond the vouchers, it's quite likely that Jindal traded many other things, too. Look closely at this quote from this article from the News Star:
Northeastern Louisiana lawmakers, both those who voted for and against the legislative pay raise, said Gov. Bobby Jindal's veto on Monday was a breach of trust between the executive and legislative branches.
"He made a lot of promises to a lot of legislators, and anytime you tell someone something and don't stick to it right or wrong it's going to create a problem with trust," said Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, who voted against the raise.
One of those staffers is the former head of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce, Stephen Moret, where he received a reported $500,000 for his work. He currently makes $245,000 per year, which I believe is some $210,000 more than the average Louisianan. Does he really need all that money?
As Oyster notes, where's all the outrage, folks? This guy is getting wealthy on the public dole! Let's give Bobby hell for this outrageous pay raise, which I might add is about $30,000 more than the Legislature originally sought to give themselves!
This morning, Governor PBJ finally broke out the veto pen on the legislative pay raise. I guess he realized that the recall effort against him wouldn't look good to the higher-ups in the Republican Party doing the vetting for their Veepstakes.
He can now kiss all of his legislative agenda for the next three years goodbye, as a rather curt thank you from the Legislature for breaking his word to them.
UPDATE: According to the NYTimes, Governor Crist of Florida, and former Governor Romney of Massachusetts will spending time there this weekend as well.
UPDATE II: LA Dem Party Chair Chris Whittington has this to say:
"Bobby Jindal has always put his political career ahead of the people of Louisiana and his meeting with John McCain this weekend only drives the point home."
According to the official news outlet of the Jindal Administration, Governor PBJ will be spending this Memorial Day weekend holed up in Arizona ... at presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's ranch.
If there was any doubt that Governor PBJ was considering leaving Louisiana in the lurch over the next 6 months, we now can easily pass the "clear and convincing" standard favored by Governor PBJ.
Yesterday, it came out that Governor PBJ reached an agreement with State Senator Buddy Shaw, who introduced a bill to roll back the income tax brackets that came into existence as part of the Stelly Plan, which eliminated the state sale tax on items such as food for home consumption and state sales tax on natural gas, electricity, and water for residential use, and raised the tax brackets to make up for the lost revenue. This was one of the most progressive acts that Louisiana has ever undertaken to make the state tax code progressive, and fairer to those who can barely make ends meet.
Senator Buddy Shaw introduced SB 87 to roll back the tax brackets for those making between $12,500 and $50,000 back to its original rate of 4% from its current rate of 6%. The Democrats in the Legislature saw this as the first step in doing away with a progressive tax structure, so State Senator Nick Gautreaux submitted an amendment to do away with the state income tax completely over the next 10 years.
The Republicans in the Legislature saw this as a golden opportunity to finally achieve what they crave - a government so small you can drown in it in the bathtub. I think we all saw the results of that in the federal government's lackadaiscal response to Hurricane Katrina. To his credit, Governor PBJ rejected doing away with all income taxes, especially in the face of some pretty severe infrastructure needs here in Louisiana.
However, the compromise is a cop-out. Essentially, the Governor signed onto Buddy Shaw's plan, but delayed its' start date until January 2009. What that means is that most Louisianans won't notice it until they go get their taxes done in 2010! I'm betting the conservatives are going to be howling mad that Governor PBJ is not acting "conservative" enough.
It will be interesting to see if the Republicans in the Legislature go along with this compromise.
For a few months now, Governor PBJ has faced a largely compliant state media that has published fawning stories about him, along with a Legislature that has been predisposed to go along with his wishes.
That's starting to change, prompting me to declare the following:
THE HONEYMOON IS OVER, GOVERNOR!
For those of y'all who are skeptical, here's the proof:
A House committee voted to limit the executive exemption for the Governor's records over the objections of Governor PBJ himself to exempt the "governor and a list of his employees: his chief of staff, executive counsel, director of policy, press secretary, legislative director, director of boards and commissions, director of intergovernmental affairs, director of constituent services, communications director, director of scheduling and "each member of their respective staff" from allowing their papers and documents into the public domain. The Committee, headed by a Republican, Rep. Wayne Waddell, voted to limit the exemptions to the Governor, his Chief of Staff, and his Executive Counsel. The bill, HB 1100, is pending consideration by the full House.
The New Orleans Gambit Weekly has a piece by the indefatigable Jeremy Alford regarding the lack of transparency the Jindal Administration has when it comes to dealing with the press. Apparently, the only press folks they want to talk to these days are the national press. Alford also published a handy graphic regarding the responsiveness of the Jindal Administration to Louisiana press:
- Jan. 31, The Advocate: "Jindal's key aides' salaries similar to Blanco's" - "Jindal's chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, did not return two requests for comment on the governor's payroll."
- Feb. 16, The Advocate: "Jindal gives away tickets to concert" - "Jindal's chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, did not respond to four requests for comment."
- March 4, The Advocate: "LSU Lab School access defended" - "Jindal did not respond to five requests for comment Tuesday."
- March 4, The Advocate: 'Nagin urges Jindal to fund N.O. projects, change ports" - "Jindal did not return a call seeking comment after meeting with Nagin."
- March 4, The Times-Picaune: "Jindal may back tuition tax breaks" - "Jindal press secretary Melissa Sellers did not respond to questions about tax breaks for private school tuition or to a more specific question about (the) effort."
- March 19, The Independent Weekly: "To H2B or Not to H2B: State leaders are working different avenues and coalitions to solve this year's critical shortage of seasonal immigrant workers." - "Jindal Press Secretary Melissa Sellers did not respond to an inquiry about the governor's involvement."
- April 7, LSU Reveille: "Jindal preaches transparency, doesn't follow through" - "Jindal's Press Secretary Melissa Sellers did not return calls requesting a comment for this column."
- April 9, Associated Press: "Former highway safety chief believes he was fired over helmet disagreement" - "(Col. Jim Champagne) said he was fired March 25, after a meeting with chief of staff Timmy Teepell, and left six days later. Teepell did not respond to requests for comment."
- April 20, The Advocate: "Evolution talk cut from bill: Proposed law now calls only for 'objective discussions'" - "Asked for a comment from Gov. Bobby Jindal or for Jindal's position on the bill, the governor did not respond."
- April 30, The Advocate: "House panel to hold hearings in Angola 3 case" - "Jindal did not respond Tuesday to two requests for comment."
- May 8, The Advocate: "Lawmakers: Ethics laws too strict for volunteers" - "Jindal did not respond to three requests for an interview made through his press secretary, Mellissa Sellers. Neither did his office answer six specific questions."
Tonight, y'all ... the FIRST televised debate of the campaign season for the Governor's Race. It's going to be televised, starting at 7 PM on LPB/PBS.
Scheduled to attend are Democrats Foster Campbell and Walter Boasso, Independent John Georges, and Republican "Bobby" Jindal.
If you are in the Shreveport area, Foster Campbell's campaign is inviting folks to watch the debate at their Shreveport HQ, located at 520 Spring Street, at the corner of Spring and Milan. I am unaware at this time of any such gathering of Boasso folks, Georges folks and Jindal folks.
The debate is expected to last one hour, and should be entertaining at the least. I look forward to hearing what "Bobby" has to say about coastal restoration and insurance, two of the issues he has thus far avoided like the plague, other than to give the usual blather about how we need to restore our coasts, and the difficulties that Louisianans are facing with their insurance companies. Hopefully, one of the candidates will pin him down on those two issues.
Yesterday, the Louisiana AFL-CIO Federation endorsed Foster Campbell for Governor. The picture at left shows Louisiana AFL-CIO President Louis Reine shaking Foster's hand at the announcement. The Campbell campaign sent out an email announcement to their supporters, in which Mr. Reine had this to say about Foster:
"Unions representing the building trades, public employees, teachers, fire fighters and police officers, transportation workers and others all agreed that Foster Campbell is the best candidate for working people and their families. He has had an outstanding career as a consumer advocate fighting for workers' rights.
Foster Campbell's plan to tax foreign oil is an idea whose time has come in Louisiana. Our state has been bled dry by the foreign-dominated oil companies, and it's time for them to pay their fair share. Under his plan, we can restore our coastline, rebuild our transportation infrastructure, improve our health care, protect and educate our citizens, and at the same time give all workers a pay raise by abolishing the state income tax."
Seriously, that's the best way to explain abolishing the state income tax I've ever heard - give yourself a pay raise. Of course, we'd have to ensure that the oil and gas fee on foreign oil is in place before doing so.
Damn right, it's about courage. I've been wondering when the candidates were going to start talking about how they were going to pay for the things they want to do. Of course, Foster's been talking about how he wants to pay for his ideas all along with the fee on the foreign gas and oil interests that have been raping our coastline for years and never, not once, paid for the PRIVILEGE to do so.
"Bobby" Jindal hasn't even discussed how he's gonna pay for everything he wants to do in his 1,000 point plans for everything under the sun. He's mentioned cutting out "wasteful" spending, but there's only so much he can cut before he starts pissing off the people, and the legislators, too. He's also said that he will CONTINUE to do what he has criticized Governor Blanco for doing - go to Washington with his hand out.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again ... it is high time we started taking care of ourselves. Once we demonstrate that, then Washington will be more than happy to help us out. And Foster Campbell is the ONLY candidate with the plan to do that.
Now, this was no gimme for Foster. He had to go through a candidate forum, straw polls of the UFT membership in each region of Louisiana, and extensive interviews about his platform and his record.
Not suprisingly, "Bobby" Jindal didn't even bother to meet with the LFT officials, nor did he bother to respond to the LFT's questionnaire. Lord knows he worked to get the endorsement of the Sheriffs and Police, so why not expend some effort to gain the endorsement of those who help shape our State's future on a daily basis?
But back to the matter at hand ... the LFT's endorsement of Foster Campbell. LFT President Steve Monaghan said it better than I can:
“As a state senator, a member of the Public Service Commission and as a citizen, Foster Campbell has always put the interests of the people first. Our executive board’s decision to endorse him was unanimous and enthusiastic.”
But more importantly, the LFT will be pushing the Louisiana AFL-CIO to endorse Foster at their next meeting ... which is today.
"The Nation needs to take a new approach to our energy problems." -- Bobby Jindal
The nation does need a new energy policy, and nowhere is this need more important than in Louisiana. But unfortunately, Bobby's actions speak louder than his words, and he is hardly the champion of energy reforms he portends to be.
Thus far, it appears that Bobby Jindal has received over $200,000 in donations from Texan oil companies and individuals associated with the Texas oil and gas industry.
Who are they? And why are they giving exorbitants amounts of money in an attempt to purchase the Louisiana's governor's race?
Before we answer these questions, perhaps we should consider Jindal's legislative record on energy policy. After all, Jindal is the author of H.R. 4761, also known as the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act, one of the most controversial and environmentally reckless proposals in recent memory, a proposal so disastrous and absurd that it engendered strong opposition even from within the Republican party.
What was H.R. 4761, and what does this reveal about Bobby Jindal's real intentions towards our energy policy?
Foster is on the air, y'all. And might I add, I can't wait for this race to get STARTED?! If this is the kind of ad we can expect out of the Campbell campaign, this is gonna be a lively one.
(Jindal receives a maximum contribution from the wife of a former Enron President. If Jindal is campaigning on transparency and ethics, will he openly discuss the special interests bankrolling his campaign? - promoted by pointecoupeedemocrat)
On May 21, 2007, Nancy Kinder must have been tending to her 13,000 square-foot, $9.7 million mansion in Houston's posh River Oaks subdivision when she suddenly got the urge to take out her checkbook at write a $5,000 donation for a candidate for governor. Even though Nancy is a Houstonian, she gave the maximum contribution for a gubernatorial candidate for the state of Louisiana, for a man named Bobby Jindal.
Why would Nancy be interested in supporting a candidate for Louisiana governor?
Who is Nancy Kinder?
According to Texans for Public Trust (and the title on her Lazy Lane mansion), Nancy is the wife of former Enron President Richard Kinder, who left Enron in 1996 and passed the torch to his dear friend and fraternity brother Ken Lay.
In ONE YEAR, Richard Kinder gave over $470,000 to the RNC Republican National State Elections Committee, according to FEC.gov.
(Still pertinent ... and it explains why this matters, notwithstanding the commentators' opinion that the LA Democratic Party mishandled the ad. - promoted by ryan)
By now, we have all seen the Louisiana Democratic Party's controversial commercial regarding candidate Bobby Jindal's published essays and letters on religion and religious conversion.
Not surprisingly, the Louisiana Republican Party and the Jindal campaign have responded with varying degrees of outrage. Jindal and his lawyers are actually attempting to pressure television companies from running these commercials, arguing the commercials are "defamatory."
First (and this may be a surprise), I do have a problem with this particular television commercial-- not because of its subject matter but because of the way it attempts to reduce an entire body of work by Jindal into a series of explosive sound bites, all aimed to upset and/or anger North Louisiana Protestants.
The commercial begins by stating, "Most Americans believe we should respect one another's religion. But not Bobby Jindal." Then, it flashes a few choice quotes from Jindal's writings as a way of "backing up" this argument. The commercial specifically targets Protestants in North and Central Louisiana and focuses almost exclusively on an essay Jindal published when he was Secretary of Health and Hospitals in Louisiana, an important fact that I believe should have been included in this commercial.
Contrary to Mr. Jindal's response, this commercial is not defamatory. Anyone who has read Mr. Jindal's work recognizes his belief in the exclusive power and authority of the Catholic Church. They also recognize when arguing for the Catholic Church, Mr. Jindal criticizes the beliefs and the authority of any other Christian denomination, particularly those founded after Luther's Reformation.
Mr. Jindal is totally within his rights to write and publish essays concerning his religious beliefs.
But the Louisiana Democratic Party is also totally within their right to call attention to the published writings of any candidate for office, regardless of subject or content. As pointecoupeedemocrat has pointed out on numerous occasions, candidate Jindal has begun preaching in front of Pentecostal and Baptist congregations. When one reads his published work, it is hard to understand how Jindal can reconcile the political need to address these congregations with his own publicly-expressed religious beliefs.
Here is how the commercial should have appeared, in my opinion:
Could it be ... that he's getting ready to run for President in 2012? The 
Yesterday, the 
"The Nation needs to take a new approach to our energy problems." -- Bobby Jindal
On May 21, 2007, Nancy Kinder must have been tending to her 13,000 square-foot, $9.7 million mansion in Houston's posh River Oaks subdivision when she suddenly got the urge to take out her checkbook at write a $5,000 donation for a candidate for governor. Even though Nancy is a Houstonian, she gave the maximum contribution for a gubernatorial candidate for the state of Louisiana, for a man named Bobby Jindal. 
